So, we had gone out after dinner and got donuts and lattes and then decided to keep driving. Where to? How about another donut shop? We could compare! We decided to drop by Happy Donut in Albany. Besides being open 24 hours, we used to see police cars parked in front regularly. While not all cops eat donuts, most drink coffee, so there. Anyway, we got an apple fritter, some kind of buttermilk donut and a 1/2 & 1/2 apple/berry Danish. The only one we ate was the apple fritter. It was okay. Smaller in size than the one we had gotten earlier so less apples and "goo". We'll try the other two in the morning or later in the day. Service was friendly and efficient but unlike what Janaia said, no free donut holes. Rats! read more

Donut shop that's open for 24 hours ad they take card. Oh em gee sign me right the heck up. I know that I'm not the only one in the world to get late night donut cravings, so having a place like this relatively close to home is like heaven sent. They do have a $5 card minimum, which is actually kind of a good thing because it makes you buy $5 worth of donuts. The more donuts in your life, the better. I really enjoyed their blueberry fritter. It was very sweet, which is just the way I like it. Solid spot in El Cerrito! Would definitely recommend as a cure for that donut itch. read more

Very good donuts, the raised dough is some of the best around. The shop is nice & clean. Service is always friendly. I took one star off because their flavored glazes are very sweet and have an artificial flavor to them. Kids probably love them but I prefer their sugar-dusted raised donuts. read more

I tried their donuts for the first time today - got an old fashioned and a crumble cake, SO GOOD! I was surprised by how fluffy the crumb cake was, can't wait to come back. read more

stop buying up allthe red velvet donuts. i have to come a long way to buy them! My favorite

This place has the best donuts and I'm really not exaggerating! Just be mindful that they don't have all types of donuts all throughout the day. My favorite are the blueberry and red velvet cake donuts but they normally only have them at nighttime (late night). Anyways, I would highly recommend any of the cake donuts. Normally, cake donuts can be hard, dry, and/or overly fried, BUT NOT HERE. I just ate a strawberry cake donut w/ rainbow sprinkles and it was so light/airy/fluffy. These are what donut dreams are made of! read more

This place, happy donut (singular), is such a great local donut shop. Reasonably clean, friendly service, open 24/7, lots of donuts and donut holes, takes square, cheap for a sweet breakfast or snack under $4. I like the donut holes best, fresh and doesn't keep more than a day. Sometimes they get overflow donuts from their other shop in Richmond. And the woman at the counter explained that Monday and Tuesday mornings are often slow so they have slightly less stock. At first I thought this was related to happy donuts (plural) on Gilman x San Pablo, but they are not! (That shop isn't open 24 hrs/day and prices and selection are slightly different, by about 25c on average. They are slightly more expensive at least for the items I bought, donut holes and old fashioned donuts.) read more

We just had a religious experience at Happy Donut. These donuts are insane. INSANE. I've never had some soft, delicious donuts in my life. I've lived and eaten and obscene amount of donuts all over the country, and these are hands down the best breakfast treats that I've ever had the pleasure of inhaling. Chocolate cruller, raspberry jelly filled, blueberry old fashioned and strawberry glazed cannot be missed. Happy donuts, I love you. You're going to get me through this pregnancy. read more

Starting many, many years ago, my youngest and I began coming here for hot chocolate and a twist on our way to his first driving lessons...now, he's grown and the hot chocolate and twists are a time for us to enjoy a moment in our lives with a tradition of sorts...thank you, Nancy, for your smiles, the sweet care of your conversations and of course those extra donut holes in our bag. We'll keep coming back! read more

I know that Yelp is more for buzz about tending spots with table service and gratuity and ambiance and closing hours. And menus. I'd just like for the staff of Happy Donut to know that their fritters are fantastic. Their donuts are delicious. And that they do what they do, very well. Dense. Chewy. Crispy glaze. Not too sweet. Huge. Fresh. You, the staff, are lovely. It's wonderful to be greeted by a smile as late as 3 a.m. Especially considering how difficult it must be to work at 3 a.m. Thank you. read more

They have Blueberry Fritters!!! Super fresh and delish donuts. Found this place just On my way back to marin county from Dublin. Have to say that I would drive back for the blueberry fritter alone. My new favorite donut. I will be a regular here from now on. read more

We come here almost weekly for a donut. I like their apple fritters, cinnamon rolls, and my partner likes their coconut double chocolate, and old fashions. The lady who works there is super friendly and knows my orders. We always get coffee with donuts. There's ample seating there for a donut break and lots of lottery tickets. It's close to our favorite vegan restaurant Portola Cafe so we always stop by here after dinner. Great desserts. read more

Very friendly and helpful staff, clean facility, and best of all.. DELICIOUS FOOD! I bought a half dozen box and cut small pieces out of each donut to try and all were amazing and perfect. Also tried a small part of the ham and cheese croissant heated up. So. Good. The croissant was perfectly fluffy, and the ham and cheese was fresh. Definitely worth the two hour walk to get there from where I live. Will be a frequent. read more

Happy Donut - Donuts Near Me - Albany, California

AN UPDATE!! there is new ownership and the guy couldn't be nicer! Same great donuts! Can't wait to try the maple-bacon! My original review was about the then owner making comments about this customer gaining weight. No such comments from this new friendly owner! read more

Scrumptious, fresh donuts----you get at LEAST your money's worth of good food here! Sandwiches, too, if you're extra hungry. Enough variety of beverages, and the coffee IS good! Friendly staff, clean, convenient----it's a winning combo! read more

My parents used to take my brothers and me here as a special treat when we were kids. It was a big deal to get to pick out a donut and from a real donut shop. Fast forward to my adult life. I decided to go back last month after regularly driving by here for the last few years. My only regret is that it took me so long to give up the chain store bakery donuts and come back here. So many kinds of donuts, fresh, and tasty. It's like giving up fast food and switching to home made. They do cost a little more than chain store bakery donuts, but they are definitely worth that little bit of extra change. They also have much more variety, I love coconut donuts and no grocery store ever bakes those. I love that they're open all night. I'm a night person and am generally awake all night, it's nice to have a place to go at all hours to get my donut fix and not have to get them from some store cabinet where they've been sitting for who knows how many hours. My favorite is the chocolate donut with chocolate frosting and shredded coconut :D Minimum charge for debit card is $5, but that's okay, it's just motivation to buy more than a couple donuts so you have donuts for night and donuts for morning. read more

Happy Donut - You need this donut in your life! Chocolate on chocolate with shredded coconut on top - Donuts Near Me - Albany, California

See all

In my search for a decent French donut... once again, to fulfill my craving... I stumbled onto this Happy Donut shop. Picked up a maple iced French and a glazed French donut... not too bad. The look was average, but given that they are open 24 hours, I was banking that freshness & quality is expected to be served at all hours. The TASTE? ...not great, but not bad. The outside was soft... center slightly spongy. Honestly... I've had better, but for the most part, it served its purpose in fulfilling my craving. CONVENIENCE: **** [OPEN 24 hrs, parking available in a small lot.] AMBIANCE: *** [Small shop, can get crowded if busy.] SERVICE: *** [Fast & friendly... but only one gal behind the counter. Be patient, she's fast and will get to your order.] PRICE: $ [Under $5] OVERALL: ***/* [3.5-stars... Local shops are my thing... and I'm glad to at least say that I left this Happy Donut... with a happily satisfied French donut craving.] Nuff said. [#26 of 100 YELP CHALLENGE 2013] read more

We (Husband H. and I) call this Homeless Donut and we love it. There are always many unwashed men in there eating donuts and clutching plastic sacks of mysterious content, hence, our pet name for this tasty locale. I'm a fan of the maple bar with custard ooze, especially after I've had a couple of drinks at the Mallard. Once, someone told me that they heard that someone found rat feces in the donut making area this one time, and I totally didn't care. read more

Oh haaaail naw. Y'all gotta sniff your surroundings some more. This is the place of crazy-magical happenstance. I have not been to Happy Donut ONCE without some kind of mindfuck occuring. Then again, are we reviewing Happy Donut, across from Thep Naree Thai restaurant where the karaoke on the weekends is so empty it's like renting out a booth yourself, or Happy Donut*s*, just one block down San Pablo, which is a schleppy one-eyed bastard cousin at best? I gotta go pee soon and I'm at work so I'll have to make this short, but here are summaries of the details as to why Happy Donut is the place to make dreams come true: - You can get all the crack ho and hooker gossip -- just go in the middle of the night. - Punk rock donuts -- Tuesday night / Wednesday morning 2:30 am -- donuts and crafts and songs. Though, this may have stopped about a half year back due to one key bearded fellow leaving the area, amongst others. - Crazy old Van Gogh look-alike painting postcards in the corner . . . or is he constantly filling out Keno cards? - Random phone calls on the pay phone asking for someone parked in a van in the lot. - The flyer by one of the doors that asks you to buy freshly caught fish from a local. - Most of all: the fascinating lack of a sense of quantity by the staff. I was first tipped off by my li'l friend that in the middle of the night, you can go and say, "Two old-fashioned glazed, please," and you would get a bag full of 5 RANDOM DONUTS. I got hella excited and we went, but as soon as I entered said, "Aww, it ain't gonna happen -- it's 3 pm, and there's this spry teenaged girl behind the counter." "1 old-fashioned glazed and one maple twist, please." *drop* *drop* -- two donuts in the bag -- she rolls the bag closed "Oh, and a cup of coffee." "Okay, that'll be $1.85 (or something). (Looks to other customer carrying baby) Aw, how is your daughter doing?" THEN . . . *phone rings* "WHAT . . . WHAT?! HOLD ON! (calls to Van Gogh lookalike) HEY RUSTY! YOU GOT ANY CIGARETTES? (back into phone) NO HE DOESN'T!" (to the customer with the baby) "WHAT KIND OF COFFEE DID YOU WANT? WAIT . . . DAMN! GOD DAMN! I JUST GOT MY EAR PIERCED AND IT'S INFECTED! DAMN!" (customer with baby) "Are you okay?" "HERE ARE YOUR DONUTS!" (to me and li'l friend) Taking our seats, I open the bag, . . . and . . . FIVE RANDOM DONUTS! Then she came out squinting later trying to foist a hot cup of coffee on me. "You want this?! Nobody else is gonna drink this!" Another time, she answered the phone and yelled, "HEY SOMEBODY'S GOTTA COVER ME -- MY EX-BOYFRIEND IS GETTING BEAT UP AT A CLUB!" I hope she kicked some ass. read more

I will never, ever, come hell or high water go back here again. First, this place smells like a rotting foot. Second, I noticed what looked to be mouse shit in one of the donuts cases, but thought it was probably some fallen chocolate sprinkles. NOPE! They were mouse droppings. I saw a mouse go running behind the beverage cooler. I asked for my money back...seeing that I'd rather not catch the plague from a simple donut. THE GUY WOULD NOT GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK! I was polite...explaining what I saw and that I didn't feel comfortable eating food from his establishment. Again, I asked for my money to be returned. Again...HE REFUSED AND TOLD ME TO LEAVE! He actually told me "I had put the mouse in the store." Yeah...I just keep a spare mouse in the pocket of my jeans. Seeing that I had only spent a little over $2 on some mouse infested food, I couldn't see pulling his dirty ass over the counter and ramming my foot up his "Happy Donut". It crossed my mind though. I left without my $2, and trashed the dirty donut. Maybe the $2 bought his well-being. Fuck this place... read more

Where does one go on a very drunk Saturday night at 4:30 a.m.? Well we were en-route to Denny's but as soon as we passed by Happy Donut I was promptly instructed to turn around!!!!!! Like any donut shop the choices were overwhelming. I had to get some sort of sprinkle confection, of course. My man required one of those ridiculously delicious lumps of buttermilk dough (we got maple flavored). Chocolate needed to be included somewhere and then of course, a fritter. We each grabbed a mini milk from the fridge. I was pissed there was no non-fat, but we were already about to eat 4 donuts between the two of us so its not like the non-fat would have done any good anyway... The only other customers at the time was a ridiculously old couple silently reading the newspaper in the corner; it was mysterious. Did they just get up? Were they about to go to bed? It looked like they had been settled in there for a good long while. weird/kind of cute. I was a little bummed that at that time of the morning the donuts were not fresh out of the oven like at King Pin, but they were delicious none-the-less. I can't believe I actually agreed to eat so much crap that late at night, but it was o-so delish. read more

24/7 Donuts. The donuts holes are my favorite! Staff is friendly and very attentive even late at night. I've never had a stale pastry from here. read more

Such kind and hard working folks. So friendly all 24/7 that they're open too. I called to place a last minute order at 11pm for like 10 dozen donut holes for 7am pickup and they were like no problem. So fresh & sweet & amazing. Love this neighborhood spot. The reasonable prices are an added bonus. Small parking lot too so you don't have to park on the street. read more

Yasss, when I am craving a donut, I can always rely on Happy Donut to deliver a fluffy yet dense, and moist donut. Friendly staff, delicious donuts and the fact that they are open 24 hours makes this now my go to donut shop! read more

Ah, Happy Donuts. To say that Happy Donut is my "Happy Place" would be an uncreative, obvious and cheap attempt at a joke. You might think a joke like that would be beneath me and that I just wouldn't go there. However, I just did go there and I'm not going to apologize to you. The best time to go here is at 5am after a long night of, ahem, "studying" on a Friday night. The donuts and donut holes are warm and delicious. My friends and I did have a lot of fun playing the scratcher games inside. It's all part of the experience. read more

Come here when i have late night cravings due to their hours. I would say the donuts are above avg for a fair to average price. Workers r super cool and politealways have a smile. Parking can be some what hard if you come late at night due to all the residents that are home. So you may have to walk a block or two read more

I had a ridiculous craving for donuts that would just not go away, so I dragged my wonderfully patient SO to come with me to Happy Donut. I was very happy that I succeeded, because Happy Donut has one of fluffiest sugar donuts I've ever had. My most favorite donut of all time are the ones with granulated sugar, as plain glazed sometimes gets too sweet for me, so I typically try those first if a shop has them and the ones from Happy Donut are perfect! There are closer donut shops to where we live, so we often go there instead but I wanted to try something new. We went in during the evening and they had some good variety left, but I suspect it might be better earlier in the day. We also got some glazed donut holes, which were light and fluffy and delicious. I think I had gotten through three or four before we even made it past two blocks away from the place. Note that they do take card, but they have a $5 minimum. If you don't hit it, they tack on (if I remember correctly) $0.75. I didn't mind the extra charge, I was just happy to get that donut craving satisfied! read more

My housemates and I take this medication that makes us really, really hungry all the time. Sometimes we stop by Happy Donut on the way back from other gastronomical adventures to get a box of donuts. This place is definitely the raddest donut place on San Pablo Avenue. I could go into the donuts but they're just donuts. The industry is based around being able to get the same taste no matter which shop you choose, so I'll save you reading about why Happy Donuts are great because they get the sprinkles freakin' perfect every time. Happy's customer service, though. That's where this place leaps ahead. If you become a regular here, you're taken care of.* Not to say that the staff doesn't operate their store like a business -- they do -- but what's a few extra donut holes among dozens? *This may only be true if you are a handsome boy. read more

Other than the O shape, what makes a chocolate covered twist different than a chocolate covered O? Today was a day for experimentation. I was feeling bold and brave. I was feeling desperate. And cold. And they were out of donuts. My mother requested an apple fritter: $1.69. I got a chocolate glazed twist for my father. And a maple bar filled with custard for myself. Oh what gluttony. Today was a day where the gaping hole in my soul required filling with fatty foods. Too bad I got so excited that I ate chocolate after 7pm. Now I'm never going to get to sleep even with intense herbal tinctures. I gave the donut and apple fritter a few seconds in the microwave. It puffed up into some delicious fully twisted chocolate. My father said it best when he said that donuts are so difficult to quit. Once he has a few bites, he'll eat the whole thing. They just jump into my mouth and demand to be in my stomach. Today was also a success when it comes to alternative medicine. My double blind experiment on my mother's stress level proved to be a success. She is the most patient person in the world. I don't know how she deals with it all and manages to end the day smiling. I'd like to think that my rudimentary dabblings in herbal medicine have helped her get through today. My aunt: is insane. Completely misdirected expressions of grief. read more

wanna know what heavens like??? try these donuts specifically the chocolate fruity pebble cake mannnn this thang is deeeelish I bought the last 2 customer behind me said go for it so I did and man was I glad I did all the donuts are delish I'll drive all the way over here for quality I'll add a photo of whatevers left its just that good didn't even make it home read more

Happy Donut - chocolate fruity pebble cake - Donuts Near Me - Albany, California

See all

I love this place great service. I recommend it donuts made fresh everyday. My son loves coming here. The owner is awesome.

It's a tradition. The last day of the semester I always go to happy donuts and get donut holes for my TAs. Four dozen donut holes and three TAs - gone in less than 20 minutes - you do the math! Thompson was super friendly and even gave me a bag of extra napkins. This place is great! They make the most wonderful apple fritters which I plan to treat myself to once I reach my goal weight. Thanks Happy Donuts - I'm glad you're on my way to school! read more

This place is a guilty pleasure. Located right between our house and the freeway it is a great place to stop and get coffee and sometimes a donut in the morning. The coffee is hot and tasty and the donuts are never stale. If you have good timing the donuts are warm too :) The staff has always been friendly too. read more

Awesome donuts! Price is great. I used to only eat a small variety bc i was hesitant to try new flavors but at Happy Donut Sylvia is awesome she puts out samples to let you try. Very good way of marketing bc she got me hooked on a couple more of their donut variety like the Apple Fritter and blueberry glazed donut and many more. It's just delish :) Sylvia knows us by name and is super nice to the kids. We love coming here. If you are craving for donuts this is the to go place. I m sure you wont b disappointed at the donuts. read more

Great small shop for some donuts or coffee. Everyone is really nice and greet you as soon as you walk in. Im happy that they are still open through covid! read more

Good fresh donuts also on two in the morning . And not pricey to :) . Usually they have variety of choices. read more

Everything you want in a donut shop. If you're going to get a few, makes way more sense to get a full dozen. Their classic raised simple glaze is the best in the East Bay, so far. We got mostly classic glaze raised, a few chocolate glaze raised and the rest cake. Thankfully there are none of those over decorated complicated designs. They keep it simple and that's best because their product doesn't need to hide under all that frosting. Thank you for updating your menu pictures which made our donut run plan much easier. We'll be back soon! read more

Happy Donut is having an identity crisis. The sign outside clearly reads "Happy Donuts" -- its language luring us in with promises of rainbows and unicorns drinking appletinis -- yet the business cards at the counter read "Happy Donut." The girl behind the counter barely caught our order for some strange Boston Creme boats (definitely not donuts), so her "duh, of course our name is Happy DoNUT" attitude was expected. We conducted a frosting-to-frosting blind taste test between Boston Creme donuts from Happy Donut and King Pin. The Happy Donut was sickly sweet overall and dull in appearance. King Pin was way tastier, and the counter person was much friendlier. The only redeeming factor of Happy Donut is the 24hr convenience. read more

Giving two stars because the customer service wasn't bad. However, the food quality was not good at all!! I got two donuts which were stale and a mocha that tastes like warm milk, no coffee. Not to mention the mocha was only luke warm. If you are in the area and just need a snack maybe go here but Safeway/Starbucks are literally up the street, if food quality is important to you. I'm certain the donuts must be at least a day old. read more

I used to hit this place once in a while back when I lived in Albany. The donuts were OK, but the hours were fantastic and if you ordered one...they sometimes gave you three. woo hoo read more